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The Future of Human Spaceflight

Posted
on Jan 7, 2013

Inside the National Academy of Sciences

I’m excited to announce one of my latest collaborations to you all! Last month, I was appointed as a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) committee member of a congressionally-requested study on the future of human spaceflight. The Committee on Human Spaceflight has been tasked with a study to review the long-term goals, core capabilities, and direction of the U.S. human spaceflight program and make recommendations to enable a sustainable U.S. human spaceflight program. The committee has enlisted an incredibly accomplished group of diverse individuals, including a former U.S. Secretary of Defense and a physicist who worked on the science mission operations for Apollo 16 and Apollo 17. To say that I am extremely honored and humbled to be collaborating with such an amazing group is an understatement.

The committee’s first meeting was held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. and featured a number of highly acclaimed speakers, including NASA Administrator and former astronaut, Charlie Bolden (who I was able to ask a question to after his presentation). SpacePolicyOnline wrote up their summary of the public meeting.

Apart from discussions held in public sessions of its meetings, the committee’s private deliberations are confidential (so please don’t ask me to comment on it), but you can learn more about the committee’s statement of task, oncoming meetings, ways to communicate with the committee, and information on the other members by visiting the committee’s project information on the NAS website. The consensus report is estimated to be delivered in mid-2014.